Sunday, October 21, 2018

This page is devoted to free and downloadable coloring pages of First Lady Melania Trump.

Melania Trump is the wife of the 45th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump.

Melania has followed a very unusual path to the White House. In fact, it is fair to say that Melania's path is the most unusual in the entire history of First Ladies.

Melania was born on 26 April 1970 in Sevnica, Slovenia. Her birth name was Melania Knavs. Her birth name is given in most biographies as Melania Knauss, but this is incorrect. In fact, Melania was Melania Knavs until she became a professional model and decided to switch the spelling of her surname from Slovenian to Germanic spelling. It was a slight change but made her name more comprehensible for the Western Europeans in charge of the modeling world.

In 1970, Slovenia was within the Soviet Empire. Its leader was World War II hero Josip Broz Tito. Thus, Melania grew up in a Communist country.

Sevnica is a small town on the Sava River to the northeast of Zagreb. There were many resistance fighters in this region during World War II.

Melania's parents are Victor and Amalija Ulcnik. Victor was a Communist functionary, but Amalija was not. Amalija, however, was a clothing designer for the local Jutranjka children's clothing factory. This would have a huge influence on Melania's future.

The apartment building where Melania's family lived still exists. The Communists did not like bright colors, so it was painted a dull grey. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the apartment building has been repainted in bright colors (blue and orange).

Melania's family later moved to a house outside of town. Victor had a successful business as a chauffeur and then as an importer of foreign car parts. It is said that Victor still occasionally returns to Sevnica to look after the family home.

It is unclear exactly when Melania began modeling. It apparently began at a very young age, perhaps as young as 5. By the age of 16, Melania was modeling regularly at her mother's factory.

At 18, Melania was so successful as a local model that she moved to Milan, the fashion capital that actually was not too far away. Melania's career quickly succeeded there.

Melania traveled around Europe doing her modeling. She picked up a handful of languages, including her native Slovenian, English, German, French, Austrian, Serbian, and Serbo-Croatian. Some of those are simply dialects of others, but there is no question that Melania had a talent for picking up languages.

Melania attended the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia to study art and architecture. At some point, Melania left to pursue her modeling career. It is unclear if she actually graduated, but the consensus seems to be that Melania did not get her diploma.

Stane Jerko, a talent scout, saw Melania at a fashion show while she was still representing Jutranijka. Melania's sister Ines also appeared at the show, which was held in Belgrade. Jerko took Melania aside and shot some black-and-white photos of Melania. They proved decisive in furthering her career.

In 1996, Melania moved to New York City, the true center of the modeling world (though some in Paris and Milan would certainly disagree). Melania did not know Donald Trump yet.

Agent Paolo Zampolli became Melania's biggest fan and booked her to many top jobs. Melania appeared on billboards for Bergdorf Goodman, Lord & Taylor, and Camel Cigarets.

At some point, Melania met Donald Trump at a party around 1998 or so. All of this is somewhat murky. The usual version of the story is that Melania was at New York's Fashion Week in September 1998. Donald Trump gave her his number, or perhaps it was the other way around - accounts differ.

When she met Donald Trump, Melania already was a very successful model. She appeared in the 2000 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, and that is very hard to do unless you are a celebrity for some reason other than being a supermodel.

By that point, Melania and Donald definitely were a couple. She was by his side when Donald Trump briefly campaigned for the presidential nomination of the Reform Party.

Melania continued modeling for several years. In the early 2000s, she was in an Aflac advertisement with comedian Gilbert Gottfried.

Donald Trump finally proposed to Melania in 2004. They were married on 22 January 2005. The wedding took place at The Episcopal Church in Palm Beach, with a reception at Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate. The celebrity guest list was full of famous names such as Barbara Walters, Kelly Ripa, and Hillary Clinton.

Billy Joel sang "The Lady is a Tramp" (with altered lyrics) at the Trumps' wedding reception.

Melania with her older sister, Ines Knauss.

Melania became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2006 and gave birth to son Barron William Trump. Barron has learned some Slovenian, and Melania calls him "Mini-Donald."

Melania has done a lot of charity work. This includes helping out her hometown of Sevnica. Melania became a Goodwill Ambassador for the American Red Cross in 2005.

Melania with Donald after one of the Presidential Debates in 2016.

Melania stood by her husband throughout the 2016 campaign. She was by his side at the debates and even gave a speech or two of her own.

While Slovenia was a communist country when she was a girl, Melania never actually joined the Communist Party. However, there was no question that the family was "in good" with the Communists given her father's job driving a local Soviet official around.

Melania has maintained a very private life as First Lady. For instance, she does not talk about her religion. It appears that she is a Christian, but she remains very quiet about that.

Melania's parents have become U.S. citizens and now live in the United States.

Melania occasionally appeared on Donald Trump's reality show "The Apprentice." When asked once if she considered herself lucky to be married to Donald Trump, she smiled and said, "Thank you, and he's not lucky?"

Melania always has pursued business interests. She maintained a jewelry line prior to entering the White House, appearing on QVC to sell it.

Melania's experience as a model has come in extremely handy as First Lady. She wears outfits by the world's top fashion designers such as Dolce and Gabbana.

Many people did not know much about Melania until she gave a speech at the Republican National Convention. Melania's speechwriter inadvertently copied some lines from Michelle Obama's speech several years previously. Melania was very apologetic and quickly gave credit to Michelle, calling her a role model.

Since becoming First Lady, Melania has pursued various worthwhile causes. These include reducing the amount of bullying online.

After the election win, Melania gave a very well-received speech in which she recited the Lord's Prayer. That's as good an indication as any of her religious leanings.

Melania said that she wanted to be a traditional First Lady in the mold of Jackie Kennedy. Melania wore a chic sky-blue outfit to the Inauguration designed by Ralph Lauren. This outfit drew comparisons to an outfit worn by Jackie Kennedy to her own husband's inauguration in 1961.

Melania stayed in New York City for the first few months of Donald Trump's presidency in order to be with Barron as he completed his school year. After that, they moved down to the White House.

Melania has a stunning fashion sense. She also has an iconic look that is very reminiscent of Sophia Loren.

Melania is a legend in Slovenia and throughout the Balkans. However, her fame extends far beyond there.

In 2018, Melania undertook her own tour of Africa without her husband. The tour was very well received.

Melania also has accompanied Donald Trump on his visits overseas to Asia and elsewhere. She always draws attention to her glamorous fashion choices.

Politics is a rough world, and Melania has attracted occasional criticism for her fashion choices.

For instance, in 2018, Melania wore a pith helmet in Africa. This caused some people to claim that this was an insult to Africa because it was reminiscent of British colonialism. However, the Africans themselves did not seem to mind. Melania later noted that she bought the helmet in Los Angeles.

Melania also took some criticism for wearing high heels on the way to visiting hurricane victims. However, she changed into flats while actually at the hurricane. It was much ado about nothing.

Another time, Melania wore a coat that had a saying on the back. The saying was, "I really don't care. Do U?" It was meant as a tongue-in-cheek commentary on the press, which had been hostile to her. Naturally, the news media misunderstood what Melania meant, but she soon cleared the matter up.

Melania has been tireless in advocating for children. She visited children being detained for entering the United States illegally, for instance.

There is no question that the Melania Trump story is far from over. It is the tale of a spunky girl finding her own way in life and achieving renown around the world. In a way, it is a real-life fairytale of an ordinary girl who overcomes all the obstacles of life and goes on to become a role model for young girls around the world.